PR and Communication



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back Philip Dring... PR & Media Relations What areas of communication have you worked in? Journalism, PR, marketing, editorship What are the most important skills needed to work in these industries? The ability to get on with people, not to flap and be able to work under pressure, to be able to make decisions quickly, to be able to juggle a number off different tasks. In any writing based work you need to be able to write to a pretty good standard of accuracy. I think that you need to believe that you can write almost anything – this means that you need to have a pretty strong ability to research a subject quickly – and then be able to select the key information in a concise and easily readable format and style. For example, yesterday I found myself researching the economy of the west African country the Gambia for a news story. What personal qualities do you think employers look for? Personality is quite important although different personalities are important – getting the right mix within an organisation – you don’t want everyone to be the same. I’d like to be able to think that the person has a good strength of personality – you have to be able to make decisions, and then justify and stick to them. Be able to think yourself into the shoes of someone receiving what you’ve written – how will they receive it, will they understand it all etc etc. It’s about style as much as content. What would impress you most on a C.V.? That the CV shows me that the person applying knows something about the industry and has given some thought to where they might fit into it. For example, I once made a comment that PR was an industry where females were doing well – one of my (female) students mentioned this as a reason why she was wanted to work in PR on an application for work – that she had noticed this and was determined to make her own mark - and got the job. It goes without saying that you should show that you know something about the organization that you are applying to. What part of work in the industry did you most enjoy, and why? Oddly enough I really quite enjoy most of it although I can get a bit frustrated with clients sometimes. Probably I like working on research best – for example I’ve just been researching a French company who are a competitor to one of my clients. What is the most important practical skill we should remember from the unit you taught us? As a starting point all the stuff about media relations. I expect IT to become increasingly important – although I’m not sure what will actually take off in this respect yet. Evaluation is important although I still find it rather imprecise. To some extent the answer to this question is dependant upon the sort of PR you are going into – in-house or consultancy for example. What is the most important source of information you use on a regular bases? I use media directories quite a bit (we did some work on this – BRAD, Hollis etc I use specialist websites relating to my main areas of activity – education (and now we’ve moved into the local authority sector and I’m having to do some rapid research on specialist ones in this area.). i.e. website, book, database?

PR & Media Relations

What areas of communication have you worked in?
Journalism, PR, marketing, editorship

What are the most important skills needed to work in these industries?
The ability to get on with people, not to flap and be able to work under pressure, to be able to make decisions quickly, to be able to juggle a number off different tasks. In any writing based work you need to be able to write to a pretty good standard of accuracy. I think that you need to believe that you can write almost anything – this means that you need to have a pretty strong ability to research a subject quickly – and then be able to select the key information in a concise and easily readable format and style. For example, yesterday I found myself researching the economy of the west African country the Gambia for a news story.

What personal qualities do you think employers look for?
Personality is quite important although different personalities are important – getting the right mix within an organisation – you don’t want everyone to be the same. I’d like to be able to think that the person has a good strength of personality – you have to be able to make decisions, and then justify and stick to them. Be able to think yourself into the shoes of someone receiving what you’ve written – how will they receive it, will they understand it all etc etc. It’s about style as much as content.

What would impress you most on a C.V.?
That the CV shows me that the person applying knows something about the industry and has given some thought to where they might fit into it. For example, I once made a comment that PR was an industry where females were doing well – one of my (female) students mentioned this as a reason why she was wanted to work in PR on an application for work – that she had noticed this and was determined to make her own mark - and got the job. It goes without saying that you should show that you know something about the organization that you are applying to.

What part of work in the industry did you most enjoy, and why?
Oddly enough I really quite enjoy most of it although I can get a bit frustrated with clients sometimes. Probably I like working on research best – for example I’ve just been researching a French company who are a competitor to one of my clients.

What is the most important practical skill we should remember from the unit
you taught us?
As a starting point all the stuff about media relations. I expect IT to become increasingly important – although I’m not sure what will actually take off in this respect yet. Evaluation is important although I still find it rather imprecise.
To some extent the answer to this question is dependant upon the sort of PR you are going into – in-house or consultancy for example.

What is the most important source of information you use on a regular bases?
I use media directories quite a bit (we did some work on this – BRAD, Hollis etc I use specialist websites relating to my main areas of activity – education (and now we’ve moved into the local authority sector and I’m having to do some rapid research on specialist ones in this area.).
i.e. website, book, database?